What are your "must order" dishes/ingredients at any restaurants?

Used to go to a place out near Glen Burnie that had a huge garden. The menu had white corn, phenomenal beefsteak tomatoes, zucchini, etc. You could have it with chicken, crab, or who knows what else. Maryland truck farming was the best.

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I can tell by the mention of vegetables that it wasn’t Ann’s Dari-Creme :joy:

Alas I think the truck farming bounty stays on the Eastern Shore, unless it makes it to a farmer’s market these days.

I remember an episode on Anthony Bourdain’s show were a local Sicilian tried to look like he knew what he was doing and threw half frozen, dead octopus (squid?) into the water for Bourdain. Bourdain was having NONE of it!

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Veal sweetbreads are a “must order”, and I’ve never been disappointed so far, but that may well be because I see them so rarely on a menu.

I once had them as an amuse bouche at a French restaurant, in pâté form, and they were great. I thought I’d make my own pâté by blitzing them with some of the cream sauce I made them with. They tasted good as usual, but lost their creamy texture. I discussed this with the chef at another restaurant, and her suggested mixing in a bit of cream cheese. Haven’t tried tht yet.

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Fried Whole Belly Clams! Getting harder to find.

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I found a source for frozen crab that isn’t pasteurized. It holds up well in the freezer for up to a year. I can’t go back to any canned ones now. I’m spoiled.

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While I go for high end and/or obscure ingredients, I cannot pass up a burger in a place reputed to do them well. Higher end hotel restaurants like the Four Seasons often offer a thick burger they will prepare medium rare. They usually do fries or rings well, too.

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Come on out to Cape Cod - we even have them in the winter!!

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What are belly clams? I did a quick search and I’m not sure I understand. I’m getting conflicting explanations. I’m reading that belly clams are steamer clams. Others specify soft-shelled clams. I don’t think that is necessarily the same thing. Littlenecks are steamers but I don’t think they are considered soft shelled. I make fried clams with west coast razor clams.

In New England, we have a variety of soft shell clam that includes a chewy neck piece and a large belly portion. They are either steamed and served with butter and/ or the broth from steaming them or shucked, dredged in breading, and deep fried. The belly is delicacy, but is not to everyone’s tastes. A lot of other places just serve “strips” which is the neck and/or connective tissue without the belly.


(Not my photo - from Epicurious.com)

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What @Amandarama said.

Here’s an article that also shows the difference. The first picture show bellies on the left, strips on the right. The strips often have a tendency to be much chewier than the bellies, because of that connective tissue.

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I LOVE whole belly fried clams. When I was a child living in Woods Hole, Cape Cod MA, we’d drive to New Bedford. We’d get “to-go”, served in paper cones, eat them hot, in the car.

A few years ago I made 2 trips to New England, had delicious ones from Red’s in Wiscasset ME.

The belly part is similar to fried oysters.

When I lived in Michigan and later California, the closest I could get was Howard Johnson’s fried clam strips, now, no more Ho Jo.

In San Francisco there is one restaurant, Woodhouse, that flies them in fresh from Ipswich MA, very good, BUT cost $40 + tax & tip, not worth it.

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A fair price, considering the leading name’s ask:

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Fried clams with bellies, from Woodman’s in Essex MA. Their onion rings are also a must if you go. Order all onion rings, no fries on that clam plate. :smile:

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Like fried fully belly clams, we’ve never passed on roasted bone marrow, wherever offered:

Another fan at about 8:20:

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I think I may be stretching the intent of the OP, but I always go out for dim sum. I can make a lot of our favorite items, but it’s just not worth making eight har gow, 12 siu mai, a quarter pound of steamed spareribs, and half a dozen chicken feet at home.

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Not so much of a stretch, really. Many of us have mentioned deep-fried dishes we don’t want to make at home. I have found some good quality har gow (and other dim sum dumplings) in the freezer section at our Asian grocer, so when I need to scratch that itch I can steam a few at home. But I won’t try my hand at turnip cakes, cheung fun, and those luscious ribs.

I also generally go out for Sichuan food and other Chinese bc I simply cannot produce the temps necessary to achieve proper wok hei.

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When I go to Swan’s Oyster Depot, it is ALWAYS for the Crab Louie.

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Salivating😋

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Absolutely the freshest sushi I can find.

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